| People v Butler |
| 2016 NY Slip Op 04447 [140 AD3d 472] |
| June 9, 2016 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Michael Butler, Appellant. |
Seymour W. James, Jr., The Legal Aid Society, New York (Allen Fallek of counsel),for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Lori Farrington of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ralph Fabrizio, J.), rendered March 8,2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, andsentencing him to a term of 22 years, unanimously affirmed.
The record does not establish that counsel improperly delegated to her client thedecision to agree to a joint trial with the codefendant. Instead, the record supports theconclusion that in agreeing to a joint trial, along with redactions of portions ofdefendant's statement that arguably incriminated the codefendant, counsel weigheddefendant's desire for a joint trial, but ultimately accepted her client's choice on the basisof her own professional judgment as well (see People v Gottsche, 118 AD3d 1303, 1303-1305 [4thDept 2014], lv denied 24 NY3d 1084 [2014]). This is not a case like People v Colville (20 NY3d20 [2012]), or People vLee (120 AD3d 1137 [2014]), where the court made a ruling by choosing thedefendant's position over the attorney's contrary position on a matter within the purviewof counsel. In any event, harmless error analysis applies (see Colville, 20 NY3dat 32-33), and we find that any error in this regard was harmless.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P.,Acosta, Saxe, Kapnick and Kahn, JJ.